SOUL-MASS BASICS Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 1 Peter 4:1 (ESV) The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8:16 (ESV) Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV) And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:22 (ESV) We live in a state of dynamic tension. On the one hand is our tangible, material world. This is where our flesh resides. What we see, hear, feel and emotionally experience is the tangible world. Yet our faith belongs in an intangible world the immaterial yet connected to our conscious awareness. The tension is in what seems real that which we can control but we know will soon pass away. What we can t touch or control is eternal. So we humans too often play the game of life pretending the tangible is more important than the intangible, yet with the gnawing sense it s not true. That game of questions as to what is eternal and what is tangible is not limited to just those who are far from Christ. Perhaps for us, as Christians, the tension, at times, is even greater because we know there is more to life. We can t overcome that tension nor should we--any more than we can defy the law of gravity. We can find balance but not compromise. Balance requires practices and disciplines to help remind us of our spiritual nature and to help keep our flesh nature in submission. Compromise is knowing the tension is true but living as if all that matters is the tangible. Our problem and our opportunity is that the issues of eternity (life) do determine the quality of our tangible existence (living) and likewise, the quality of our tangible existence often determines the essence and full experience of our spirituality. Enter then the opportunity to help another person find the proper equilibrium between experiencing living while growing a life. Soul mentoring is simply a discipling process to help put our lives in proper context. The mentoring process drills in on the spiritual and flesh entities; those elements making us human. Remember, flesh doesn t make us human. Both our flesh and spiritual natures do. As a result, it is important to ground our understanding in the basics. A more detailed discussion of flesh and soul-mass is in your Resource section of this journal and you are
encouraged to spend time grounding yourself in the basics of why you are meeting with another person under the objective of mentoring the soul. When God created Adam, he breathed life into this creature of the red dirt, A dam, and A dam became a living being. (Genesis 3:7 ) The first truth in the book, Gravity, addresses that very event life and living. Life is the substance of the creature God created. Living is what we do with that life. At birth, we got all the equipment we need for this dance through life from the beginning of the music starting with the cries of a new-born and ending with the cries of those who morn. On that dancefloor, we will have the choice and the chance to acquire the Spirit of Christ through Jesus gift of everlasting life made possible on the Cross. That s it. We may lose the functions of parts of the flesh but the flesh and the spiritual are with us from beginning to end. Flesh is easy to comprehend. It s tangible. Skin, bones, brain, organs of the heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys. That s easy to understand sort of. Although the body has been studied and dissected since antiquity, it wasn t until the 16th century that curiosity overcame superstition and a factual understanding of the physiology of the human body began. For most of our existence as humans, the flesh has been as much a mystery as the spiritual. In the past hundred years we ve made gigantic strides in understanding the makeup of the human flesh down to mapping the human genome. Yet, we know little more than a millennium ago about the composition of our soul-mass. However, God has not been silent. From the beginnings of communication with the creatures He made we ve known three things. Our wild flesh needs to be caged, subdued and chained into submission. Unrestrained, it is an agent of rebellion and violence. Ask Cain and Able. Second, we also know the human spirit needs rigorous discipline to be trained-disciplined to be a willing agent of the Holy Spirit. Ask Cain and Abel s parents, Adam and Eve. Finally, we also know the soul needs to be healed and protected. Ask David. It is as simple and as complex as that. FOUR THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL NATURE: The flesh is the source of our reasoning and desire, yet without the exercise of selfcontrol we will always end up in behaviors of sin. The driving force of the flesh is survival as experienced by fear, pleasure and procreation. The flesh is wild at its core and can never be tamed, only suppressed and contained. The motivations of the flesh are survival and gratification feeling good about feeling good. The flesh is the container, the earthen vessel, the Apostle Paul talks about. (2 Corin. 4:7). Where the English Standard Version of the bible uses the word flesh, the New International Version translates the word as sinful nature. Between those two translations we see the complete picture. Our flesh and bones contain nothing in it s desire, motivation, discipline or intention that by itself is pleasing to God as righteous behavior. After the fall from grace in Eden, humankind has had an intentional manufacturing defect. Our steering
mechanism always pulls us off the straight and narrow road into the ditch. In other words, the nature of our flesh is to sin due to a deadly addiction to self preservation, self gratification and control the three temptations Christ experienced in the desert. The human spirit one half of soul-mass is a connection point to all things supernatural. The driving force of the human spirit is control and is achieved through selfishness. The flesh and the human spirit make a deadly team. Whereas the flesh connects to the tangible world, the human spirit connects to the spiritual realm. The human spirit is wild at its core but can be tamed. Given to its nature the human spirit will always seek supremacy driven by insecurity. The driving motivation of the human spirit is satisfaction and justification. It s commonly believed the human spirit contains the mind, heart and will of humans. As a result, the human spirit is the neck of the spiritual man. Where it turns the rest of the human follows. The human spirit is neither good nor evil. It is simply the reception point for all things spiritual. This as the Holy Spirit draws all people unto him, it is the human spirit that is receptive or resistant. It is the human spirit where will resides and what will wants, will gets. The soul the other half of soul-mass is the pure essence of God implanted into the human creature, returning back to the Father upon death. The soul is, no doubt innocent and vulnerable, since scripture makes no mention of it being the source of sin or evil. Because of its innocence, the soul is easily attacked, wounded and hurt. The soul desperately needs a protector, which in the perfect world of Eden was probably the human spirit. The driving force of the soul is to glorify the Father. It was Mary, on learning she would bare the Savior of the world said in her Magnificat, My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. (Luke 1:44-55). The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, changes EVERYTHING. While Christ, the Savior is the agent of salvation, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, is the agent of transformation, enabling the flesh, human spirit and soul to rise above the passions, fears and ambitions of the natural man by becoming an offering at the altar of the Cross. The Holy Spirit is the source of ethical transformation (doing right) and charismatic power (prophecy, healing, casting out of demons, speaking in an unknown language tongues and signs and wonders pointing to the supernatural (unexplainable in natural terms and understanding) power of God himself. INTEGRATING Soul-mass is the integration and overlapping influence of the human spirit made up of the mind, the heart and the will and the soul containing the essence of the nature of God. The degree of our attraction and influence we have with others is directly proportional the size and density (healthiness) of our soul-mass. What is essential to understand is that the source of that irresistible attraction and powerful radiating influence is either selfish celebrity or the expression of God s love.
Because of the power of gravitational attraction, your role is to not just draw people to you (attraction). In addition, as people are attracted to you, your gravitational influence will cause their direction to be altered, creating their own trajectory. The direction of that trajectory is to a closer and even more intimate relationship with Jesus, the Christ, our Savior. That is the process of discipling and discipleship. Another way to understand the interplay of the material and immaterial elements of being human is to study to table on the next page. Remember, for more detailed study, read about this topic in the Resources section in the back of your journal. As the mentor it is important you keep this understanding of the flesh and spiritual in the back of your mind. You are not a teacher or a preacher so educating is not your role. However, as you enter into conversations of personal spirituality, knowing how to guide your friends interest and curiosity will assist in keeping the conversation about their growing awareness of God at work within. The integrated soul and human spirit, transformed and now inhabited by the Holy Spirit make up the new wineskin that Jesus speaks of. (Mark 2:22 ) By having an understanding of the interplay of flesh, soul-mass and the Holy Spirit, as the mentor you are now better able to ask the question, Who do you think is talking more loudly here? Flesh, human spirit, soul or the Holy Spirit? A word of caution. The lines and categories presented on the chart on the following page are more definitive than is clearly found in Scripture. Because we are dealing with the spiritual rather than the natural, it is impossible to accurately represent the functions and interplay of our spiritual identity. The lines and categories hopefully allow our finite minds to better comprehend an infinite knowledge of God at work in all of us. In no way is the chart intended to represent an understanding beyond that which is found to be revealed through Scripture. SIX CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FLESH AND OUR SOUL-MASS Examine the table below. It is a brief overview of the characteristic of the flesh and the soul-mass. As we discuss the composition of the flesh and the wineskin, we ll use these characteristics to help us better under the nature and role of each element.
The Material Flesh The Immaterial Wineskin Body Human Spirit Soul-Mass Soul Holy Spirit Default Operating System Survival Selfishness and Control Is (I Am), to glorify the Father. Power from on high Primary Spiritual Relationship Relates to God, the Son (Christ in all) Relates to God, the Holy Spirit (empowering all) Relates to God, the Father (Lord, God Almighty ruling over all) Member of the Godhead Reason for Being Sensual/conscious awareness Preservation/ Survival/ Procreation) Operational center Self-awareness (Control) Executive center God-awareness (Glorify God) Covenant center Was, is and always will be. The spirit of Christ in his stead for the time of the earth. Dominant Motivation Gratification Satisfaction and justification Contentment In the will of God Comforter, encourager, counsel/teacher, empowerer so the whole person becomes an instrument or righteousness Knowing God Rational thoughts, deduction, induction, memory, integration, language Knowledge/Trust (Cynicism) Reasoning (heart Luke 5:21-22) Belief/Trust Faith/Trust Is God Time Orientation (frame of reference) Sensual here and now Remembering/ memories of the past as a lesson for the present Past, Present & Future Scheming, planning, dreaming Present & Future Desiring for reunification Timeless